One of the most innovate programming tools to become available in recent times is no doubt "G.I. Sound Tool", a sound effects programming tool from The Catalog, by Lee Actor and Gary Levenberg. It just might be the very best sound programming tool available for the ST, maybe next to professional music programmers' music programming tools.

We all know that the built in YM-2149 soundchip of the Atari ST series isn't much to get excited about. Basic waveforms, no LFO or decent ADSR. Some people manage to get reasonable quality sound from it, mainly by use of the tremendous speed offered by the 68000 (people like Rob Hubbard, David Whittaker, Jochen from TEX and Holger Gehrmann).

So hearing the sounds that arose from "G.I. Sound Tool" really made me look at the package a second time - was this possible using such a plain-looking program? Yes, it was!

"G.I. Sound Tool" mainly consists of two parts: The editor and the sound driver. The editor is completely GEM based, and allows the manipulation of Volume, Frequency and Noise of a sound. The sound driver is a linkable piece of object code that programmers can include in their applications to make the sounds audible. Permissions needs to be asked to use the sound driver in your own programs.

Just have a look at the technical information of "G.I. Sound Tool":

- Volume ADSR to shape attack, decay, sustain and release- Volume LFO for Tremolo effects and Amplitude Modulation- Frequency ADSR - frequency shifts up to ± 3 octaves!- Frequency LFO for Vibrato effects and Frequency Modulation- LFO delay lets you add effects at any point in the sound- MIDI compatible! Use your keyboard to play the soundchip- Three sound windows may be open at once

"G.I. Sound Tool" lets you create so-called NSQ sounds (NSQ stands for 'Near Synthesizer Quality'), and I must admit that some pretty advanced sounds can be made using this programming tool - stunning space sounds, drumming sounds, fading doppler effects, and much more.

The individual sound characteristics are manipulated using a graphics presentation of that characteristic and shaping it with the mouse - much like the way it is done in most MIDI synthesizer editors like "CZ Android". LFO (Low Frequency Oscillator) graphics are very limited (always a sawtooth form, just with variable amplitude and length), and the ADSR graphics are somewhat limited as well (though quite variable).

Working with "G.I. Sound Tool" is very easy, especially because of the crisp'n'clear user manual (supplied on disk). Once you know the controls, it's really a child's job to create a stunning sound that will spontaneously drop your pants!

However, there is a bug in the program (although it might be one implemented in GEM): Typing the underscore (_) in the 'Save as...' box causes 10 bombs to appear on your screen. Further, I miss an item selector box when saving. You have to type in the new name in a dialog box, which is not optimal.

The sound driver is C-compatible, so you need to have some knowledge of this language before you can add your sounds to your own programs. But I think I will have Mark van den Boer convert it to machine code shortly - in the next issue of ST NEWS, some swell sounds may be included as well!

Alltogether, "G.I Sound Tool" is a very well designed program that allows the use of good sound effects on a really down-to-earth soundchip like the ST's. The program can be obtained through 'The Catalog'. They didn't supply me with the price.

The Catalog Software544 Second StreetSan Fransisco, CA 94107United States of America

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